Policies & Popularity

The Literary Digest last week footed up the final totals of its poll on whether voters approved of President Roosevelt's policies as a whole. Pertinent statistics:

P: Pro Roosevelt policies: 1,083,752; anti Roosevelt policies: 688,411.

P: "Yes" votes amounted to 61.15% compared to 57% Roosevelt votes cast in the 1932 election.

P:Only State not carried by Roosevelt in the poll: Vermont with 53% anti-New Deal

P: Nineteen per cent of those who voted for Roosevelt in 1932 now vote against him. Thirty-four per cent of those who voted for Hoover in 1932 now vote for Roosevelt.

P: Biggest Roosevelt gain: 14.39% in California. Chief areas of Roosevelt gains: 1) the Pacific Coast, 2) New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

P: Biggest Roosevelt loss: 10.41% in South Carolina. Chief areas of Roosevelt losses: 1) the Solid South, 2) South Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana.

P: Of six polls by occupation (clergymen, businessmen, educators, lawyers, physicians and bankers) all were pro Roosevelt except the bankers, of whom 52.41% opposed the New Deal. However all except the educators gave Roosevelt a smaller vote than the public at large.

P: Borderline States, giving Roosevelt less than a 55% vote: Indiana. Iowa. Kansas, South Dakota. Illinois, Nebraska. Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire.

Significant politically was the fact that the chief falling off in the Roosevelt vote was in the Solid South. There the New Deal may lose heavily without bettering the chances of Republicans to get elected. Nonetheless Republicans took hope by declaring that the poll's question was so worded as to test the President's personal popularity rather than the political strength of his policies. G. O. Partisans made much of a local by-election for the New York State Senate last week in the President's home district, which he represented in 1910-13 but failed to carry in 1932. Poughkeepsie, chief city in the area, voted 50% for Roosevelt in the Digest poll, but last week gave the winning Republican candidate for State Senator a 70% majority.

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